Covid-19: Trust in government and other people linked with lower infection rate and higher vaccination uptake

Trust in the government and in the people around us correlates with lower covid-19 infection rates, a study using data from 177 countries has found.

Pandemic preparedness, democracy, income inequality, universal healthcare, and hospital capacity failed to show a significant relationship with coronavirus infection or fatality rates.

Higher levels of government and interpersonal trust were also associated with higher vaccine coverage, the study published in the Lancet suggested.1

The findings indicate that if all societies had trust in government at least as high as Denmark, which is in the 75th percentile, the world would have experienced 13% fewer infections. If social trust—trust in other people—reached the same level, the effect would be even larger, with 40% fewer infections globally.

Thomas J Bollyky, a lead author of the study and director of …